E
by Illisandria Carthain
Summary: I have you under my thumb, you are mine yet I am still unhappy...why is that? Oneshot


I toyed gently with his hair, running their grey blades between my fingers, hearing each individual hair brush up against the cloth of my gloves, "Mine…" I whispered slyly as I toyed with the tag that was in his ear. "My Dib…" He groaned softly and shifted in his bed, his eyes fluttering behind closed eyelids. "Shh…" I hissed, pressing one finger against the dry cracked surface of his lips, "Quiet or the moment will be ruined…then I'll have to remind you why you're here."

"I…want…to die…" the words croaked out of his mouth and his heartbeat leapt from the effort of moving.

"No. My Dib!" I shrieked at his aged form, "I'll tell you when you can die - not you - ME!!!!" I clawed the side of his head and smiled as a rivulet of blood ran down his face, dipping and pooling in his wrinkles. "Fifty years…" I sighed delving into the deep pool of memories that had collected over time, "I've been here for only fifty years and look what I have, something that made me forget my mission (even though it was temporary)." I hugged him again and smiled, wider this time, "Mine" He shuddered as he inhaled, the skin that had been once a pale ivory now an ashen grey and clammy.

"Please…let me die…"

"Foolish hyuman—" my anger was deserved this time, "My game isn't over yet, not until Zim says so!" The machines next to him hummed steadily, "You humans are all the same, so fragile…they don't make very good toys do they?" I smiled as he twitched and shuddered all over as he felt my antennae brush his face, "But I suppose it's a good thing that, when it comes too it, I can fix even the worst of breaks…Even the blood spurting from a heart-"

-x-

_Dib ran in and scowled at Zim, his sixteen-year-old lanky build glistening with sweat when he stopped suddenly at the small alien's evil grin. "What are you playing at Zim?!"_

"_What do you mean?" He smiled sweetly._

"_You attacked my sister and you hurt my dad. He doesn't remember who hurt him and her spirit is broken. Why did you do that?! I thought it was me you were after!" he scowled and stepped forwards, a tazer in hand; this time he was truly serious._

"_I wanted your attention and attacking your filthy family was the best outlet," he lunged forwards with a nasty machine in his hand. He tackled the human and reached for his left ear with the machine. There was a nasty 'snick' and then the child screamed; blood spurted everywhere and then there was a dull flash of metal in Dib's ear._

"_What was that?!!!!" the human shouted, clutching his head._

"_A tag." Zim stated, "This labels you as mine and therefore no one else - human or otherwise - is allowed to have you. This tag hereby makes you my enemy for the rest of your, or my, life. Whichever comes first…" Then he waved his hand at the boy dismissively. "Go now, I have to clean your blood off my floor so as I can pretend to be normal again."_

"_So I'm just supposed to leave?!!!" the teen lunged forward and brandished the tazer at the nonchalant alien, "Not until I get revenge for my family!" he jumped towards Zim and yelled in a primal way._

_Zim hissed and his spider-legs shot out of her PAK and punctured the human's chest with a surprisingly large amount of resistance. His eyes widened and he shrieked as the human's water-based blood splattered onto his face and sizzled slightly, the abrasive liquid wearing at his skin. "Dib!!!!" he shrieked and withdrew the legs as he applied a tube of something to the wounds. The wound healed but the memory, and the scar, remained._

-x-

"So many memories…" I traced another pale scar lovingly.

-x-

_Dib lay there, legless and writhing on the ground in a pool of blood, screaming incoherently. "You break too easy; this is no fun if I have to fix you every ten times we play our little game." Zim grabbed a needle and thread as he chided the wounded adult gently. "Good thing I can fix you just as quickly as I break you or I'd be one very lonely Irken."_

_-x-_

"Mine…forever and ever…players in the eternal game" I brushed the tubes and wires that ran from all angles of his personage from his neck and smiled. There lay two long scars that ran parallel from his collarbone to his jawbone at an angle.

-x-

_They scuffled; even though Dib was now even bigger than Zim, the alien had the advantage when it came to strength. Blood sprayed on his walls and he screamed in frustration as he heaved the twenty-year-old's limp form off of him, the man's blood flowing all over his hands, cloaking his gloves in the slick substance. "You're still no fun!" He pulled out something that was akin to gauze and moved towards the now-twitching Dib's body, "Now hold still so Zim can make the hurt go away…" Dib's brown eyes rolled wildly._

-x-

"Time—what a ridiculous notion for you humans…you barely live long enough to even think about time, let alone label time like you do." Another scar, another memory.

-x-

"_Gaz—" Dib screamed. His sister stared at the mangled mess that was now his brother in utter terror, her now-long purple hair falling from its tight bun. "Run!!!"_

_As Zim came in with some things in his hands he glanced up at his sister and smiled softly, "Never to fear Dib, she isn't mine therefore I will not harm her." He turned back to the seizing man, "Now hold still, unless you want to feel the pain."_

-x-

"Mine, mine, mine…" I traced the latticework of scars on his back, their soft pink forms intersecting at odd angles. Some of them even made shapes of - words, "E" I traced the symbol on his back and whispered the sound softly. "Now you have no life outside my game…"

"Kill me…" tears ran down his cheek and mixed with his blood forming pink pools on the white of the bed sheets.

"You made this fun…so fun…" I began softly, tears brimming at the edge of my fingers. "Should you have lived more than a century or more I would've been finished with the game, with you. But your kind lives such a short lives and so my game is ending prematurely…I guess it's about time that I finish my time on this filthy planet even though I'm wishing for much more time with you." I frowned and reopened an old wound on his hand, the scar weeping blood, tendons breathing air and his blue blood turning crimson. Thoughts ran through my head and then it hit me - I smiled and pet him gently, "But there will be more Dibs, more e. And I will play my game until I am finished with it. And I will finish it - even if I have to go through hundreds or thousands of your kind! I will play, Dib." I cried his name hungrily, "And do you know what you do with a toy when you are done with it?" I leaned in close and reached to the main control of his life support.

"Kill…me. Let…me die…"

"You throw them away." The system powered down and Dib's face relaxed. "Goodbye Dib."

He sighed gratefully and with the last of his air uttered these parting words, "Thank…you…"

I watched him fade and turned away, giving Computer explicit instructions to dispose of the body. "No, not for you—for me. For my game and my enjoyment. For my toys. For Zim. There will be many toys and many games. So I will break them, replace them, and begin again. Forever and ever and ever—"

-x-

**Fin**

(A/N: This is another good reason why I should never be allowed to listen to depressing music at night and then allowed anywhere near my notebook. This is the plot-bunny that spawned from the combination of depression and writing skill. Oh and if anyone knows the literal translation of the Japanese participle 'e' please let me know. To the extent of my knowledge, it means 'possession of' or 'belonging to'. If I am wrong, please tell me so. R&R please. Thanks as usual)

PS: Disclaimer-Don't own a lick (neither does Jhonen ) Forgot…sorry.


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